Thursday, January 28, 2010

"President Barack Obama took his retooled agenda on the road on Thursday, hoping to convince Americans he is serious about focusing on jobs and the economy as he seeks to dig out of his deepest political rut since taking office."

The quote above was taken from this article that was posted by Reuters recently. Apparently after giving a speech, that lasted over an hour, that basically said nothing our President's next step is to tour our great nation promoting his new agenda.

Quite frankly, if this new agenda is that important why is he trying to get buy-in from the voting public before he starts on it. If it is that important then he should get back in his office and start working on it. Actions speak louder than words, and so far his actions have not produced much that would be considered positive. So if he wants to sway the American people back to his side then he needs to get moving on coming up with viable solutions to the problems plaguing this country. That is if he really has the power to change anything.

Arguably we have seen stimulus package after stimulus package get passed through the government that never really ended up helping the economy in any significant way. We have also seen that companies that did not take a "bail-out" did better than ones that did.

What we have seen from the bailed-out organizations is major bonuses given to their executives. Even though it may have been in their compensation agreement, they should have declined these bonuses on the basis that if the company does not do well then the executives at that company should not be rewarded for it. That is what bonuses are after all, a reward for a job well done, not a "perk" for having stuck around for another year. If the company does not turn a profit no one, not even the executives, should be getting any kind of bonus.

We have also seen his party create a Health-Care Reform bill that has effectively polarized this country, with more and more people liking it less and less the more they hear about it. Though, even if you put aside the contents of this bill, the approach the Democratic majority of Congress is taking to get this bill passed is setting this country up for some of the biggest upsets when it comes to this fall's mid-term elections.

Really, if the President wants to increase his approval rating he should stop talking about making things better and start doing it. Though, if history has taught us anything we should know, as a country, that we do not need to rely on the "leadership" of our country to make inroads to fix the economy and other issues we are facing. We are able to take the onus on ourselves to do it without having the government setup some new "Czar" in order to get things moving in the right direction.

"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold." Proverbs 3:13-14

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

It is currently early in the Mid-Term US Senate and Representative races, but things are already looking pretty interesting.

We are close on the heels of the recent win of the Senate seat in Massachusetts by Republican Scott Brown, that was held by the late Ted Kennedy, and we are already starting to see a glimmer of a shift in power in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Now the Republicans in the Senate have the power to delay a vote on the current Health-care Reform Bill with a filibuster. And even if the Democrats can get past that they may still not have the majority they need to ultimately pass the bill. The outcome of this bill could have some serious ramifications on this fall's elections. If it somehow passes it will, more than likely, spell the doom of many democratic Senators and Representatives political careers. However, if it does not pass the results of the elections may be a bit more unclear.

In California we already have three Republican candidates running against the Democrat Incumbent, Barbara Boxer, who some have described as a "failed senator." Her main challengers in no particular order are:

Carly Fiorina was the CEO of the large computer hardware company Hewlett-Packard, where she worked her way up from being a secretary in the shipping department.

Tom Campbell, a career politician, is the only one of the three that has held more than one major political office, the most recent of which was a US House of Representative seat he held until 2000 when he ran against, and lost to, Diane Feinstein for a US Senate seat.

Chuck DeVore, who currently holds a State Assemblyman seat, served in the Armed Forces, specifically in the Army Reserve, and achieved the rank of Lt Colonel before retiring.

My only advise here is to thoroughly check the platforms these candidates are running from and choose wisely. Recently I heard an observation regarding how the power shifts in our government are becoming more and more extreme. It is rather obvious with what is going on with the Health-care Reform bill that the Democrats have spent all of their "political capital" and are now scrambling to push this through. If this does pass this country will be poised for one of the biggest pendulum swings in our history.

I just hope this country will be able to survive it.

"And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand." - Mark 3:25

Friday, January 22, 2010

A series of events that could only happen in our nations capitol, or possibly in some sort of satirical comedy based on our nations capitol, we have learned that we basically have a circus for a governing body.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of our great nation made a controversial ruling that removed all limits on what private corporations can contribute to the campaign of their chosen candidate. Previously there was a cap on how much the private sector could funnel into a campaign, which conceivably reduces the likely-hood of a candidate from being "bought." Now there will be no limit to what special interest groups can do to "persuade" their candidate to make a decision, or draft a piece of legislature in their favor.

So what we are basically seeing here is, corporations that are in the very economy that Congress is trying to prop up with the stimulus packages they keep pushing through are being asked for campaign contributions to help those same lawmakers stay in office.

I think it goes without saying that we are seeing the biggest political shift this country has seen since either the Civil War, or the Great Depression. The upcoming mid-term elections will produce some of the most heatedly contested Senate seat elections in recent memory, which may result in a huge shift in power come November.

Not only will we see incumbents losing their offices due to the voters showing how fed up with how the combined Legislative Branch has tried to ram Obamacare down our throats, we will also see corporations who, at one time, would have heavily backed these "public servants", will suddenly be backing their opponents.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

So I am watching the Vikings-Giants game. The Vikings have the game pretty well in hand and they decide to take Favre out for the remainder.

Now he is standing on the side-lines just looking around since it is between plays. One of the NFLs cameras is trained on him. As Brett is looking around he gaze finally seems to rest on the very camera that is trained on him. Now I know it is probably on the other side of the stadium, but I found it rather comical that after "staring into the camera" he then says, "What?" As if the guy behind the camera is expecting him to do something.